Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/73

Rh in the Mines, and extending this privilege to all the Mining Districts.

But no encouragement, on the part of the Royal Government, could supply the want of capital, and of confidence; and, with the exception of some works at Catorce, Zacatecas, and Sombrerete, which were prosecuted successfully, after the reverses of the Insurgents in 1814, and 1815, by small Spanish Capitalists, who resided upon the spot. Mining, throughout the Kingdom, was reduced to a mere shadow of what it had been. In 1821, even these partial works were given up, (on the Declaration of the Independence,) and most of the Spaniards who had invested money in them withdrew their capitals, and returned to Europe.

Such was the state of the Mining interests of Mexico, when the first Independent Government was established. Its attention was early, and unavoidably, drawn to the subject, because the Mines had involved in their fall both agriculture and trade, to which their restoration could alone give a new impulse.

This part of the subject, however, belongs more properly to the observations with which it is my